County reaffirms school transport policy

Denbighshire County Council has re-affirmed its Home to School Transport Eligibility Policy, following a discussion at its Cabinet meeting in County Hall, Ruthin today (Tuesday).

The policy now includes central pick up points for secondary school pupils as an amendment, with free transport provided to the nearest suitable secondary school.  The pick up points will come into effect in September 2015.
 A transitional period will be introduced, where pupils who are not attending their nearest school (due to historic anomalies), will remain eligible for transport to their existing school, to prevent disruption to their education.  Following a thorough debate, Cabinet Members agreed to alter recommendation 3(vi) - Cabinet requests that the Welsh in Education Strategic Group review the language categorisation of all schools during the Autumn Term and present a report to Scrutiny in early Spring 2015

They also added recommendation (vii) -  "An assessment of the impact of the policy be conducted and presented to Scrutiny at the end of the first year of implementation."
Councillor Eryl Williams, Cabinet Lead Member for Education, said: “The current Home to School Transport Policy is silent in many areas and has resulted in the historic anomalies  in the current system.  

“This amended policy formalises arrangements for transport to school, it is transparent and every attempt will be made to ensure that parents are clear about the transport implications when applying for school places."

The council’s decision to review this policy comes as the school transport service is overspent and the new policy could result in a saving of around £272,000.

Skates welcomes Welsh budget

Assembly Member Ken Skates has welcomed the Welsh Labour Government’s budget for next year, which he says "reflects the priorities of the people of Clwyd South".

 

Jane Hutt, Minister for Finance and Government Business, today announced £425m of extra funding for the Welsh NHS over two years, while schools’ funding is also protected and there is continued support for the hugely successful Jobs Growth Wales scheme.

 

Labour AM Mr Skates said: “This is a budget that reflects the priorities of people in Clwyd South and that recognises the high regard in which they hold our National Health Service.

 

“It is, of course, a difficult budget, and the unprecedented cuts made to the Welsh budget by the Tories in Westminster have obviously had an impact. The Welsh 2015-16 budget is £1.5bn lower in real terms than it was 2010-11.

 

“However, our priorities are different, and we are protecting the services that matter most to people.

 

“I am delighted that we continue to provide support to the excellent and ground-breaking Jobs Growth Wales scheme, which has helped almost 1,000 young people in Wrexham and Denbighshire into work.

 

“The people of Wales can see first-hand that this Labour Government is on their side.”

Councillor calls for halt on Horseshoe speed limit plan

A LLANGOLLEN county councillor is calling for a halt on plans to impose a lower 40mph speed limit on the Horseshoe Pass.

Stuart Davies has made his demand after discovering that police have prosecuted just one motorist in the past five years for breaking the existing 60mph restriction on the A542 route from Llangollen towards Llandegla and Ruthin.

Cllr Davies said: “I recently put in a Freedom of Information request to North Wales Police which reveals that since 2009 they have brought only one prosecution for speeding on the Horseshoe Pass and this was in the financial year 2013/14.

“If they aren’t prosecuting people for breaking the 60mph limit up there why do they want to lower it to 40mph?

“It doesn’t make sense to me, especially at a time when Denbighshire County Council is being asked to make deep cuts in its budget of around £30 million over the next few years affecting essential services.

“I am told that implementing the new 40mph restriction, with the cost of consultation and new signs, would be £20,000 and I’d argue we just can’t afford that sum when it appears that people aren’t being prosecuted for breaching the limit that’s already in force.”

He added: “I know that some work has already gone into it but my view is that any further work on it should be stopped immediately.”

Official figures show that over the past five years the Horseshoe Pass has been the scene of 22 collisions involving slight injuries, 10 rated as serious and two which were fatal.

North Wales Police traffic officers recently requested the county council to impose a 40mph limit on the whole of the pass from the Britannia to the cattle grid at Pentre Isaf.

When he first raised the issue a few months ago, Cllr Davies said: “I am of the view that better enforcement of our existing laws and better education of drivers at the hotspots would slow down traffic and safeguard lives rather than the blunt use of a blanket speed limit over the whole of the pass.”

Free garden waste collection service pruned

Denbighshire has announced the council’s free garden waste collection service will be ending on 16 January 2015.

It will be replaced with a new (optional) service, which will be available for a fee - less than £1 per collection - (£24 per year) from 30 March onward.

This means that our garden waste collection service will be funded by the residents who choose to use it.

Every one of the 35,000 households affected by this news will receive further information, and details of how they can opt-in to the scheme, says the council. This information will be delivered to each household in the autumn.

Cllr David Smith said: “A number of other councils up and down Wales already charge for this service. Here in Denbighshire, we have held out as long as possible, but next year’s cuts in Welsh Government funding are so large, that we are now running out of options. 

"In Denbighshire the proposed budget settlement is likely to mean we need to find some £18m in savings over the next two years. This figure is our current working assumption based on the latest information available from the Welsh Government."

Over recent months, the council has scrutinised all aspects of its work, with all services putting forward proposals for cuts and £4.6m approved by councillors at full council on  September 9.

All proposals have been subject to debate by council and further proposals will need to be worked-up over the coming months in order to achieve the savings target, the authority warns.

Police boss seeks unsung heroes

* North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Winston Roddick.

A POLICE boss has launched his own awards scheme to honour the unsung crime fighting heroes of the community in the first initiative of its kind.

North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Winston Roddick CB QC and is inviting the public to help him choose one of the key winners of his new Community Awards.

The aim is to officially recognise people who help police to keep their neighbourhood or town a peaceful and safe place to live and work and who help in rehabilitating offenders..

The key accolade he will be handing out at the presentation evening next month in front of police and civic leaders is the People’s Award whose winner will be chosen from among those nominated directly by the public of North Wales.

For this award the Commissioner wants the public of North Wales to put forward the names of worthy candidates - individuals or groups who have made a major impact on cutting crime, keeping people safe or rehabilitating offenders.

Mr Roddick, who in his time has served as a police officer, a barrister and a judge, said he became convinced of the need for launching his Community Awards, which have a total of 11 categories, after seeing the great number of people in the community across North Wales who – often silently – and in partnership with their local police, work to reduce crime and its effects.

He said: “Since I became Police and Crime Commissioner for North Wales in November 2012 I have been across the length and breadth of the area meeting with people, both individuals and groups, to discuss policing and crime issues.

 It has become clear to me that there are a great number of people who do a lot of good in the community by helping North Wales Police to keep North Wales a peaceful and safe place to live and work and by helping offenders rehabilitate.

“These silent workers go way beyond anybody else to make a contribution and ensure their communities are safe. The rehabilitation of offenders also reduces crime and the tendency to commit crime.

“In the overwhelming number of cases, this a personal commitment made without expectation of any kind of reward or recognition. .

“ Having seen the value of their work, I decided that in my role as Police and Crime Commissioner, working for the people, I should devise a way of showing appreciation for all the hard work and achievements of these special people.

“With that object in mind, I have established these community-based awards.

“Their purpose is public recognition of these unsung heroes and their aim is to encourage others to emulate their good example.

“I believe I am the first Police and Crime Commissioner in England and Wales to institute such awards, so North Wales is very much leading the way with this initiative and I intend to make it an annual event.”

The Commissioner added: “One of the awards I have established this year is called the People’s Award.
“This will go to an individual or group who have made an impact in helping to keep people safe and/or to reduce crime.

“This contribution may impact the whole area, a local town, neighbourhood or even street, but it will have made a difference to the people living and working there.

“It could be someone who is working to bring communities together to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour, or is working with people to deter and reduce offending.

“While I will select most of the award recipients myself in consultation with my office, the People’s Award is special in that it is the only one which will be nominated directly by the public.

“I am therefore asking for the assistance of the people of North Wales to help me select a suitable candidate for this particular award.

“If you know someone in your community who has gone that extra mile to prevent or reduce crime, protect and support members of the community or generally helped to make North Wales a safer place to live and work, please nominate them for the People’s Award.

The Community Awards, sponsored by Police Mutual, will be handed over to recipients by the Commissioner, watched by their families and a large invited audience including the Chief Constable of North Wales, Mark Polin, Members of Parliament, Assembly Members and the High Sheriff of Clwyd, David Meredith Jones, at a presentation evening in the Kinmel Manor Hotel in Abergele on
Thursday, October 23.

Apart from the People’s Award, other 10 awards to be presented are:

* Safer Community Award in recognition of an individual, community group or organisation that has made a significant contribution towards enhancing safety in public places.

* Partnership Award for organisations which have successfully worked in partnership with others to help community safety.

* Reducing Harm Award for an individual, community group or organisation who have made efforts to prevent and tackle serious crime and/or provide support to victims of serious crime.

* Rehabilitation Award for a voluntary, social or private enterprise that works with former offenders or those at risk of offending to help them break the offending cycle, or an individual who has shown strength and determination to turn their life around, to move away from offending and contribute to society in a positive way.

* Third Sector Award for a community or voluntary group who have contributed towards personal safety and crime reduction or who have made a significant impact in helping victims of crime.

* Equality and Diversity Award for a person or group who have supported the equality agenda and made an impact on hate crime. This is aimed at someone who has embraced community engagement to reduce tensions in communities and reduce fear of crime.

* Welsh Language Service Award for an organisation who, through the medium of Welsh, provide comprehensive victim services and/or other community services that help to reduce crime.

* Young Person of the Year Award for a young person under the age of 25 who has made a difference in their family and/or community, for example by working with the police or overcoming some adversity, contributing to awareness raising around crime prevention, public safety etc.

* Individual Endeavour Award for an individual whose endeavour and achievements towards helping prevent crime, supporting the police, helping victims, volunteering or other work stand out.

* The Police and Crime Commissioner’s Gold Award, a special award, available to a group or individual for long term contribution to public life and community, working in North Wales helping to prevent crime and support communities.

The closing date for the Community Awards is October 6 and for more information go to www.northwales-pcc.gov.uk

LimeLight to hold open evenings

After the success and good reviews of their recent comedy play Billy Liar at The Town Hall, LimeLight Productions are offering open evenings and inviting all to go along.  

Meet all the LimeLight teams, have a sing along, learn about their 2015 programme of musical theatre shows, plays and events. 

They recently held an evening at the new Acton Community Resource Centre Wrexham where many attended and showed interest in joining this wonderful successful theatre company. 

Now they are spreading the evening and will be holding one at Air Products Sports and Social Club, Bethania Road, Acrefair, on Wednesday 1^st October at 7.00pm.

Remembering a World War One soldier 100 years on

 

 

A personal story by llanblogger, Phil Robinson

 

* The poppy wreath laid at the foot of the remembrance plaques in Liverpool's Hall of Remembrance. 

I recently went over to Liverpool to complete my own small piece of First Word War remembrance.

Just a few days after the war broke out on August 4, 1914, my grandfather sailed for France with the British Expeditionary Force.

Less than six weeks later he had been killed in action at the age of just 26, leaving behind two young children and third on the way – my late father – who, of course, he never met.

Last Saturday, September 20, was the precise 100^th anniversary of his death during the Battle of the Aisne and I was determined to mark the occasion in some way.

Although I know exactly where is grave is located – a small Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery not far from where he fell in the rolling countryside of the Chemin des Dames – and have been there twice, I couldn’t make the journey back there for various reasons.

So my search began for a suitable place to lay a poppy wreath to commemorate the centenary of his death.

I began in Widnes, where my grandfather, Corporal Ernest Robinson of the 2^nd Battalion South Lancashire Regiment (pictured left) , was born in 1888. But after getting in touch with various churches over there to see if his name appeared on their war memorials I drew a blank.

I then tried churches in the Liverpool 8 area where he moved after marrying my grandmother in 1908 and lived until he marched off to war in 1914. But all attempts to find his name on their war memorials or rolls of honour proved again proved fruitless.

I was about to give up my quest when I had a flash of inspiration that he might just be mentioned in the Hall of Remembrance at Liverpool Town Hall, opened by the Prince of Wales in 1921, not long after the war ended, and details of which I found on the net.

After weeks of trying unsuccessfully to locate him I could hardly believe my luck when a search of those named in the hall on the town hall website revealed what I was looking for. There was my grandfather’s name on plaque 45.

Next step was to check if I would be able to go over to see his name for myself and lay my poppy wreath in his memory nearby.

* The Hall of Remembrance bearing hundreds of names of Liverpool's First World War dead.

I envisaged a problem as September 20 was a Saturday, when the town hall is closed, but a quick email enquiry brought a welcome response – although the building is indeed shut on Saturdays, there was a wedding on there that particular day and one of the staff would be on hand for half an hour from 12noon to let me into the remembrance hall.

With my poppy wreath in hand – bought via the internet from the Royal British Legion – I went over to Liverpool and paid my homage to Corporal Robinson 100 years to the day he gave his life for King and country.